The Axe Man Cometh

All was quiet for eight months, then in November 1968 the British Railways Board once again published proposals to close the remaining section of the line after it was announced that the funding of the line from the government would end. A closure notice was posted (see left) stating:
"Any users of the rail service it is proposed to withdraw or of the stations which are proposed for closure, and anybody representing such users may lodge an objection In writing within six weeks of Friday, 27th December, 1963, i.e. not later than Friday, 7th Feb. 1969 [..]

If no objection is lodged to the proposal, the service will be withdrawn and the stations closed on and from Monday, 5th May 1969"

£69,000 was the quoted amount required to subsidise the line for a year. Once again the proposals were severely contested, however no decision was made regarding the future of the branch, a report titled "Subsidy for the Stour Valley Line" by John Hibbs (this report can be found in the Information Archive) was published in July 1969 which pin pointed four main facts:

1. Closure of the Sudbury Passenger Service would cause hardship - certainly travelers to/from London.
2. If anything, this traffic is likely to grow - perhaps substantially.
3. Closure could prejudice further overspill and industrial expansion in Sudbury and its hinterland; and, by the same token, undermine the already substantial investments made in these regards.
4. There are solid reasons for believing that the cost of a grant could well be significantly less than figures so far published.

Permission to Close
On 15th June 1972, John Peyton - Minister for Transport Industries gave consent to withdraw the Colchester to Sudbury Passenger Rail Service but with the stipulation that it not close before 1st July 1974. The reason for the delay was given in a letter to Keith Stainton, MP for Sudbury and Woodbridge, was to allow the local authorities in the area time to consider subsidising the line. In the mean time the line was subsidised by the Department at £84,000 per year.

The fight went on during 1973 to save the line, headed by the Sudbury Rail Action Committee.
During this time the Stour Valley Railway Preservation Society based at Chappel and Wakes Colne put forward suggestions that they should be aloud to purchase the line - this was not popular with the Action Committee who agreed that the line should be run by British Rail and that the SVRPS were clouding the issue and offering BR an easy way out of running the Sudbury Branch.

However, the line was supported by the local councils, and it was announced in January 1974 by the Government that no railway lines would close before 1975 when the situation would be reviewed again, this was in response to the Oil and Energy Crisis of the Mid-70s.
In 1975 the branch was given a Public Service Obligation Grant and the closure order was never implemented, once again saving the branch.
Full Details of this closure attempt, including reports, objections and newspaper reports can be found in the Information Archive.

All Quiet

With the threat of closure now disappearing, life on the branch carried on as normal using mainly Class 105 units (as shown above), although some further cost saving measures were to take place.

Plans to move Sudbury station back to the original site which had been around since before the closure of the section north of Sudbury had still come to nothing and the station buildings started to become tatty, the buildings on the down side being demolished. The three storied Bures Station buildings had already been demolished in 1973.

Early 1981 and the signal box at Sudbury was demolished, the line had become a long siding, and the remaining signals at Sudbury removed. The level crossings were still manually worked.

Another potential threat to the line came about in 1983 where Sir David Serpell, a civil servant who had worked with Dr Beeching published a report which suggested more rail closures as BR was in need of major investment, however this was quickly abandoned as it was met with fierce opposition. His report presented a number of ideas, including an option which would have closed most of the non Inter-City rail network in the UK.

The last item to be taken from Sudbury station for future re-use was the footbridge which spanned the tracks between the main station buildings and the now-disused platform.

This was removed in 1982 by members of the Stour Valley Railway Preservation Society and taken to their site at Chappel and Wakes Colne to replace the footbridge there which had been removed in the 1960s by British Railways.

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